Ruthless Magnate, Convenient Wife

The white dress was an elegant column design, lifted into the extraordinary by the shimmering crystals that glittered on the gorgeous fabric like thousands of stars below the lights. Alissa was hugely impressed and equally so with the cobweb-fine lingerie and the shoes ornamented with pearls. She suffered a moment’s fear that the dress would not fit, but it skimmed her curves to perfection and she dared to breathe again. The delicate tulle veil falling from the wreath of real flowers encircling her head was very pretty. When she finally saw herself in a mirror, she knew she had never looked better.

She was ushered downstairs and tucked into a limousine. When she was deposited in front of a public building, she had to fight the urge to shiver in the icy air. A young woman, who spoke fluent English, greeted her in the busy hallway and introduced herself as Lukina, one of Sergei’s aides.

‘Where are we?’ Alissa asked.

‘ZAGS-where the civil ceremony takes place.’ The question seemed to surprise the brunette. ‘Didn’t you receive the information I sent you a few weeks ago? It contained a complete breakdown of everything that would be happening today as well as some useful pointers.’

Alissa reddened and realised that once again her twin had neglected to keep her up to speed on things that she needed to know. ‘Sorry, I forgot.’

‘Mr Antonovich is keen for you to make a particular effort to be pleasant to his grandmother, Yelena,’ Lukina informed her anxiously. ‘He’s her only grandson and this is a very special day for her.’

Alissa’s flush deepened at the offensive suggestion that she might have to be told to be nice to Sergei’s grandmother. So it was that her eyes were sparkling when she entered the room where the ceremony was to take place. Bridal music was playing in the background as, heartbreakingly handsome in a superbly tailored dark suit, Sergei strode up to her and presented her with a dainty bouquet of rosebuds that was incongruous in his large hands and which he patently could not wait to relinquish.

Every choice concerning the wedding had been based on what Yelena might like or expect. Sergei had ordered an extremely feminine and romantic wedding dress, as he had guessed that Yelena, who had never enjoyed frills in her own life, would enjoy such a spectacle. What he had not foreseen was how well the shimmering dress and simple floral wreath would frame and enhance Alissa’s fair, delicate beauty. She looked like a fairy princess from an old storybook, and although he wanted to laugh at that comparison he was disturbed by the discovery that he could not take his eyes off her.

Meeting Sergei’s dark smouldering gaze, Alissa tensed. Sexual awareness and the first renewed flickers of desire stole back into her slender body. He reached for her hand and she saw a small elderly woman in a bright blue dress and jacket keenly observing them and smiled, immediately guessing who she was.

The brief ceremony was highlighted by an exchange of wedding rings and she learned that in Russia the wedding ring was worn on a woman’s right hand. Afterwards they signed the register, whereupon Sergei introduced her to the woman she had noticed earlier. Yelena, as cheerful as a spring flower in her suit, glowed with energy and good humour.

Yelena shared the limousine that ferried them to the church and Sergei translated his grandmother’s rapidfire questions.

Asked if she liked children, Alissa declared that she adored them and hoped to have two or three. Yelena followed up that response with others of a more housewifely note. Did she cook? Yes, but she didn’t bake very well. Did she sew? Not really, the ability to sew on a button was Alissa’s only talent in that field. Did she embroider or knit? No, she didn’t embroider, but she had loved knitting ever since she created tiny garments for a friend’s baby. Sergei was accustomed to women without domestic skills and he was quick to assume that Alissa had decided to lie to impress Yelena. But struggling to translate a more technical exchange on knitting for the women’s benefit, he began to doubt that conviction and he was pleased to see his grandmother beaming at his chosen bride.

‘She took the trouble to knit for her friend’s baby. That’s a good woman. You’ve done well,’ Yelena pronounced with approval, straightening her grandson’s tie for him before he could assist her from the car. ‘She’s very pretty as well. Give as much time to your marriage as you give to business and you will be together for a lifetime.’

Taken aback by that blunt advice on how to hold onto a woman when he had much more trouble getting rid of them, Sergei escorted his bride and his grandmother into the church, which was packed with guests. Awesomely aware of being the centre of attention and recognising the buzz of curiosity as she passed by, Alissa was tense and nervous and very much afraid of making a wrong move in public. She was also striving to understand why Alexa had begged her to marry Sergei in her place while withholding all useful information about the role. Had her sister secretly wanted her twin to fall flat on her face?

The priest blessed their rings and they were given candles to hold. They held hands as the slow ritual proceeded, reaching its climax when they

were crowned and followed by the sharing of a cup of wine and a final blessing.

‘I really, really feel married after all that palaver,’ Sergei growled like a bear on the way out again.

‘You’ve been through it all before,’ Alissa pointed out, less comfortable with the knowledge that she was faking a marriage in the aftermath of a solemn religious service.

‘I only went through a civil ceremony the last time. This day will last for ever,’ Sergei groaned. ‘We still have the reception to get through.’

‘Don’t you enjoy socialising?’ Alissa was wryly amused by his mood and grateful she was not a genuine bride, liable to feel hurt by his indifferent attitude.

‘That’s not the problem.’ In the rear seat of the limo, Sergei gripped her hand to turn her round to face him. Black-lashed, dark golden eyes raked hungrily over her in a look that was purebred primitive. ‘You make the most exquisite bride. I just want all the show and fuss to be over quickly so that I can be alone with you, milaya moya.’

Her face warmed, and habit almost made her voice a protest to remind him that she was only a fake bride and that his being alone with her wasn’t about to change anything. But when she looked at his devastatingly handsome features and felt the pull of his potent masculinity, her heartbeat hammered in her eardrums and the griping words shrivelled on her tongue and died in her throat. The truth was that Sergei Antonovich absolutely mesmerised her and, even though she knew that the relationship could go nowhere, temptation was biting deeply into her resolve to keep things platonic.

After all, no man had ever made her feel the way Sergei made her feel and it was perfectly possible, given the level of Sergei’s attraction, that no other man ever would. How was she supposed to live in close proximity to him and pretend to be his wife, while at the same time totally resisting his attraction? Piece by piece, hour by hour, he was contriving to weaken her will power and destroy her defences. Alexa’s scornful words about her twin’s lack of sexual experience had also left their mark on Alissa, making her feel foolish, outdated and ignorant. Perhaps it was true that she was guilty of making sex too much of a big deal, she reasoned uncertainly.

Unaware of the mental moral tussle his bride was engaged in, Sergei was now in an excellent mood while he mentally ticked off boxes with a great deal of satisfaction. Most importantly of all, Alissa had hit it off with Yelena. Strangely, he acknowledged, Alissa seemed to bear no resemblance to the woman described in the psychological profile he had had done on her. How was that possible? Did it mean that such profiles could be so inaccurate that they were not worth the paper they were written on? Or was it simply that Alissa was an excellent actress, well up to the challenge of concealing her less engaging traits of character?

But why on earth was he splitting hairs when she was putting on a wonderful performance? Evidently he had picked the right woman for the role and now all he had to do was get her pregnant. Not a challenge he was likely to shrink from, he conceded with dark sexual amusement. The arousal that always assailed him to some degree in Alissa’s presence was already charging his lean powerful body with erotic expectancy.

Outside the hotel doors being spread wide for their entrance, Sergei scooped Alissa up into his arms and carried her over the threshold to the accompaniment of the shouts, cheers and comments freely offered by the guests grouped in the foyer. Perhaps that was the first hint that Alissa received that Russian weddings were often a good deal less sedate than English ones. Everything seemed rather more colourful and informal.

As soon as they were seated a man stood up to toast the newlyweds and moments later there was an outcry of, ‘Gorko! Gorko!’

‘Now we kiss for as long as we can,’ Sergei told her, brilliant dark eyes frowning at her bewildered expression. ‘Didn’t you bother to read the information you were sent?’

Alexa had struck again, Alissa recognised in frustration, and annoyance filled her. That was the moment that Sergei chose to pry her lips apart with the tender pressure of his slow, sensual mouth. That more subtle approach wasn’t what she expected from him and ironically she initially tensed in surprise. But when he dipped his tongue between her lips, her knees developed a responsive wobble and her hands crept up round his neck to steady herself. The guests were chanting but she didn’t know what they were saying. Indeed the presence of an audience could only be a source of discomfort when Sergei was making love to her mouth with a sweet shattering eroticism that made mincemeat of her resistance. It seemed a very long time later when he finally freed her and she dropped back down into her seat dizzily, still drunk on the hot hungry taste of him and the thrumming of her awakened body.

Only a moment later when she was studying the assembled guests she was astonished to realise that she actually knew one of them. Her brightening eyes dimmed, however, when she failed to pick out the man’s wife at the same table. Without a word she got up and went over to speak to him.